1. The Field of the Invention
My invention relates to the field of insulation supports. In particular, my invention is in the field of batt or sheet insulation supports for building walls, ceilings and roofs. The principle of the invention is to put straps in the voids which are to be insulated. When the straps are in place, prongs which are produced by partial cutouts in the straps are bent substantially at right angles away from the strap. The prongs then impale the insulation and hold it in the void to prevent sagging or settling of the insulation and consequent increase in heat transfer.
2. The Prior Art
One method of holding insulation batts in place has been to provide the insulation batt with paper flanges which can be tacked or stapled to the wooden studs of the building wall or the wooden beams of a ceiling, roof or floor. This practice works out well in residential construction but cannot be used in the insulation of commercial buildings where metal wall studs and metal horizontal roof or floor purlins are used.
Another approach when insulating masonry walls has been to attach nails to the masonary walls by means of an adhesive applied to the nail head. The disadvantage here is getting the nail head to stick to the masonry that may be old and dusty brickwork. A third approach has been to insert bars or wires in the voids to be insulated. This system has the disadvantages of high cost and high labor content.
Yet another approach, shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,231,944 to Bennett involves stiffeners built into the insulation batts with prongs on the end of the stiffeners to engage the wooden studs that define the insulation void. The disadvantage of this system includes the fact that the void must be exactly the distance apart required by the batt; this ideal is seldom obtained in building construction. This system is intended for the use of wooden studs and it requires that the insulation batt be distorted by the stiffeners to hold the insulation batt in the void.